RainnWilson

Well, you have to go back to work sometime. Especially when you're a cast member on 'The Office' (Thu., 9PM ET on NBC). Pam (Jenna Fischer) returns to Dunder Mifflin after being away on maternity leave. But as soon as she gets back to work, trouble ensues. Her breast pump is suddenly missing. If past experience of 'The Office' is any guide, then this problem will be resolved in the most awkward way possible.

(S06E22) We haven't heard from the folks at Dunder Mifflin Scranton for almost a month, and it's refreshing that the first episode back, the antics are generally related to office-specific issues. Well, at least the better part of the episode was office-related.

(S06E20) If you took this episode and dropped it in the middle of season two or three, it probably would have fit in nicely. Well, except for the fact that you might be asking why Pam was on maternity leave (and why Jim is the dad), why Andy is working in Scranton, and just who the hell Erin is.

But you know what I'm getting at. The tone, pacing, and comedy of this episode continues the recent trend of 'The Office' getting back to what made people love it to begin with. And, yes, part of that means that Michael is going to make an ass of himself. But at least the season six version of Michael somehow gets a little bit of hope mixed in with his desperation stew.

Dwight Schrute, everyone's favorite nerd, has had a tough romantic road on 'The Office' (Thu., 9PM ET on NBC). After losing his fiancee Angela to his office-rival Andy, Dwight (Rainn Wilson) took a short break from romance. But then the pair entered into a formal agreement to have a baby together.

But on the latest episode of 'The Office,' Dwight meets a new girl -- Isabel -- who seems to change his mind about Angela. Dwight seems instantly lovestruck. "What's your blood-type?" he says to Isabel, using a new all-time classic pick-up line. Angela becomes enraged, and then romantic matters progress between Dwight and Isabel. "You are an impressive specimen," he says to her; and then they -- well, you'll just have to watch for yourself.

(S06E18) Watching this episode, I got the nagging feeling that the writers made a grave mistake three years ago when they had Jim leave the Scranton branch for Stamford, then come back. When the branches merged, Jim became the branch's number two under Michael, and he actually had a scintilla of authority over Dwight.

Sure, he pulled pranks on Dwight over the ensuing years, and Dwight tried to end Jim on any number of occasions. But there was always an implication that the two weren't work equals. Jim becoming co-manager made things worse.

But now they're equals again. And seeing Dwight's MegaDesk, followed by Jim creating the incorrectly-named QuadDesk, made me realize why the early episodes of 'The Office' work so well. Jim and Dwight getting under each other's skin was a reminder of every irritating cubicle neighbor I've ever had, and that dynamic was missing. It was good to see it back tonight, but it got me annoyed that it really hasn't been around since season two.

(S06E16 / S06E17) Remember how the one hour Pam/Jim wedding episode was considered by many -- including me -- to be 'The Office's' best episode of the season? Well, the one-hour Pam/Jim baby episode definitely isn't in that category.

Why? Because, through a lot of the episode, Pam and Jim displayed none of the charm that made us fall in sitcom love with them in the first place. To compound the situation, they're being written into situations that would make fans of 'Yes, Dear' cringe. But we'll get to that later.

As usual with most one-hour 'Office' episodes, the first half was better than the second. But even the first half of this one had some problems.

Can you feel it? The air is cleaner, food tastes better, and the two feet of snow outside my window is a fluffy dream instead of an icy mess.

It seems like the producers of 'The Office' realized things weren't right in their world and they decided to rectify things. And in the process they made one of the more satisfying episodes of the season.

On last week's 'Parks and Recreation' we saw Ron Swanson prove to Leslie how much of a tolerance he has for alcohol: he finished building a small harp in his woodshop while downing a bunch of whiskey. Power tools, precise measurements, minute tuning, the whole works. He even showed her photographic evidence (above).

When I spoke to Nick Offerman at the press tour, he told me that the show would be getting a look inside Swanson's woodshop. When he talked about the prospect, his eyes lit up and said, "I'm very excited about it." Well, now we know why: Offerman owns his own woodshop, and has a website full of examples of his and his crew's work. They make some very nice furniture, and they also build small structures and canoes.

(S01E15) Why has this season of 'The Office' been so off-kilter? There have been promising episodes but very few that hit the mark. In fact, the only episode that can hold its own with classic 'Office' episodes is the Pam-Jim wedding, and I'm starting to fear that the show really is trying to figure out where to go from that high point.

And Jam may be the big problem here. They're not interesting anymore. But I'll get to them later.

So Dunder Mifflin is now owned by a company called Sabre. We don't quite know what they're all about except that they sell printers and they have a feisty CEO played by Kathy Bates. And in exchange for saving the branch's ass, they've asked for a few very reasonable changes. You'd think that even Michael Scott would embrace those changes. You'd be wrong.

It may not have seemed that Sarah Silverman was busy in 2009, especially since the last time we saw 'The Sarah Silverman Program' on Comedy Central was December of 2008. But she was busy behind the scenes.

Silverman filmed 'Saint John of Las Vegas' with Steve Buscemi, which played the festival circuit last year and gets a wider release this year, 'Peep World' with Michael C. Hall and Rainn Wilson, and wrote her memoir, 'The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee,' which is due in April.

Silverman was also negotiating with Comedy Central for 'The Sarah Silverman Program.' Comedy Central wanted to cut her budget from $1.1 million per episode to $850,000, which was a non-starter for Silverman and her partners.

You can be forgiven if you thought The Sarah Silverman Program was done. The last time new episodes aired on Comedy Central was December of 2008, and in an era where some shows clock two seasons a year, that's an eternity.

Take heart, Silverman fans, the show returns for a third season on February 4, paired with last year's surprise hit, Important Things with Demetri Martin. And if you miss the season premiere, you can catch it again on the LOGO network on February 9, the day The Sarah Silverman Program: Season Two, Volume Two comes out on DVD.

(S06E13) After the cringeworthiness of "Scott's Tots," seeing an episode where Michael merely acts like a petulant child is almost refreshing.

But Michael's petulance had a purpose. Dunder Mifflin is in trouble. Office morale is at an all-time low. So, while Michael was still acting like a baby, he was doing it because he wanted to be the one to lift everyone's spirits. Still, it's funny to watch childish Michael, especially when we can see big ol' Kevin act indecisive while crushing Michael's lap.

I loved seeing Phyllis as Santa. She's right; she has the temperament, the figure, and she's got bad-ass Bob Vance to back her up in case anyone objects. And to think, at one time Phyllis Smith was a cheerleader for the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals.

(S06E12) This episode had one of those "oh, this is not going to end well" vibes to it. And how could it not? Somehow Michael Scott got himself into a situation that transcended mere embarrassment. He made a promise that he couldn't keep, and it affected a lot of lives.

"Of all the empty promises I've made, this is by far the most generous," Michael said, and he was right. The whole time I was watching the Scott's Tots storyline play out, I was cringing, waiting for the moment of truth. But, surprisingly enough, things didn't turn out as bad as we thought. And for that, we have Erin to thank.

(S06E11) You know a company is doomed when it parades Michael Scott in front of its shareholders as an example of its best and brightest. But, as we saw from Michael today, his sales skills only take him so far.

You really, really wanted to see him pull a plan out of that savantish mind of his that would have saved Dunder Mifflin. At least I did. But, thankfully for the show's writers, that was never going to happen.

The interesting thing about this episode, though? The shareholders meeting plot was just OK. What I really wanted to see was more of Jim devising ways to assert his authority around the office. That was much funnier, and it was a small reminder of what attracted people to the show to begin with: small, real-life situations everyone who's ever sat in a cubicle could relate to.